20 April 2006

TriLoom Tartan


A TriLoom Tartan Ruana - a long process coming along well.
This is Lana's current TriLoom project. The weaving on a Tri-loom is extremely well suited to designs involving check style patterns, as it is a contionuous weave, doing both sides at the same time. Lana wanted to try this out and a good example of a check pattern is a Scottish Tartan.
This is the Maclaren Tartan which has some link on her mother's side of the family tree. This is taking a while as it is woven over each nail (200 per side) and using the comb to ensure that the lines are straight and the two threads aren't twisted.
The colours of the photo are close, but the blue should be a royal blue.
The plan is to do the same pattern twice and join them together making a very warm shawl - actually called a "Ruana".
Lana is sitting at an odd angle for two reasons. She hasn't yet convinced her dad to dedicate the time for a stand and she has a nasty bruise on her knee from a fall entering church on Holy Thursday night.
(Picture the scene: A quiet church, about 30 people in the monastery church silently praying. Our normal place on the front pew nearest the door is taken so we quietly proceed through a pew to get to the other side. Lana missed seeing one of the kneelers being down and trips over it with a loud clatter and bang. Everyone turns and looks with concern as Lana limps to our seat and tries to collect her thoughts - and rub her very sore leg - in time for Mass.)

2 comments:

patternnuts said...

Shows up as Royal Blue for me, and boy, it is gorgeous!
One word summary: Wow.
And a query- how much materials does such an item use? And roughly (if it is okay to ask) at what cost?

DavidofOz said...

The formula for calculating the length of wool required in yards is the hypotenuse length in feet x number of nails / 3. In this case, the formula is 7 feet x 199 nails / 3 = 464 yards (about 420 metres) Then add any fringe.
I'm sure you could get wool at great prices at Walmart or online.
The biggest cost is really time. Weaving wool over 199 nails results in a lot of over and under and missed threads and rework. And frustration with everyone else leaving the room for safety. :-)